N.J. voters reject school budgets in heated elections

Robert Sciarrino/The Star-LedgerGov. Chris Christie exits a voting machine at the Brookside Fire House after voting in the local school board election in Mendham Township. When asked by reports how he voted Christie said that it was his right to keep that information private.

New Jersey voters took a stand on school spending and property taxes Tuesday, rejecting 260 of 479 school budgets across 19 counties, according to unofficial results in statewide school elections.

In the proposed state budget he unveiled last month, Gov. Chris Christie slashed $820 million in aid to school districts and urged voters to defeat budgets if teachers in their schools did not agree to one-year wage freezes. The salvo ignited a heated debate with the state’s largest teachers union.

Christie said the cuts were necessary to help plug an $11 billion state budget gap.

In many districts Tuesday, the governor made himself heard as 54 percent of the spending plans were rejected, according to unofficial returns. If the trend continues, it would mark the most budget defeats in New Jersey since 1976, when 56 percent failed. Typically, voters approve more than 70 percent of the school budgets.

In wealthy Somerset County, voters defeated 15 of 17 spending plans; in Hunterdon County, 23 of 28 budgets failed. In the governor’s hometown, Mendham Township, the budget was narrowly approved.

Jeffrey Brookner, president of the Bridgewater-Raritan school board, said "lots of factors played into the defeat. One of those factors is the role that the governor played."

Voter turnout was also high in elections that typically draw little interest. In Sparta, where turnout rivaled some presidential elections, the budget was defeated by roughly a 3-to-1 margin. Sparta teachers agreed to a one-year wage freeze late last week, but the budget still called for a nearly 10 percent tax increase for residents in the Sussex County community.

"I think the governor’s rhetoric hurt us. The governor dumping all of the state issues on the local level hurt us," Superintendent Thomas Morton said. "It’s going to be a long, hard road. We’ll start to work tomorrow."

In towns where they failed, the budgets will now be presented to the local governing body, which can cut or leave the spending plans as is.

Sparta Mayor Scott Seelagy said he wanted to analyze the budget before commenting on where the council would look for cuts.

"The voters in Sparta have sent a very strong message about how they feel about taxes," said Seelagy, who said he couldn’t recall the last time a Sparta school budget had failed. "I think people voted with their pocketbooks."

In North Brunswick, where the teachers union also agreed last week to a one-year wage freeze, the budget passed.

"The cooperation, I think that was the difference," Superintendent Brian Zychowski said. "People recognized that everybody was trying to contribute to maintain the educational integrity of the school district."

School elections in New Jersey are usually a low-key event, with voter turnout typically around 15 percent.

This year was different, with weeks of harsh rhetoric and a bare-knuckles political battle between the governor and the 200,000-member New Jersey Education Association leading up to the vote.

When it came time to cast ballots, residents like Dru Patel of Parsippany sided with Christie.
Patel, 45, who voted at Lake Hiawatha School, said he turned down the district’s $127 million budget because "there was nothing like a salary freeze ... in these tough times.

"At our work place, we have had a salary freeze for two years, and the budget and property taxes keep going up," said Patel, a research scientist at a chemical company.

Don Wheeler, of Linden, voted against his district’s $102 million budget, which included $78 million to be raised in taxes. The budget failed.

"There is such a thing as belt-tightening and if the educators don’t recognize it, they’re going to," Wheeler said.

Not everyone felt that way.

Anthony Cordasco, 38, of Parsippany, said he voted for the budget to preserve the quality of the schools. "I think our governor was irresponsible in his comment urging people to vote no. Individual communities should take their own local needs into consideration," Cordasco said.
Clem Gibeault of Roselle Park, a former school board president, said he voted for his district’s $29.2 budget, which would still mean the loss of 58 jobs. The budget failed by two votes, but election officials are going to tabulate provisional ballots today.

"The school system is the only thing they’ve got in Roselle Park, and you’ve got to support it," Gibeault said.

Districts were sent reeling by the cuts Christie proposed, which slashed aid to each district by an amount equal to 5 percent of their overall budgets, but resulted in eliminating 40-, 50- or even 100 percent of many districts’ state aid. School boards proposed laying off teachers, slashing programs and increasing class sizes.

Chris Christie visits Boonton school, praises union for agreeing to wage freezeWhen Gov. Chris Christie issued a budget that heavily slashed public school funding, he threw down the gauntlet for teachers unions to take a hit and reopen contracts to avoid program cuts and job losses. Today, Christie visited one school district that took up the challenge. Boonton schools lost some $1.2 million in school aid. Superintendent Christine Johnson says the district was headed for a minimum of 25 jobs being cut and cuts to school programs when she called an emergency faculty meeting. Less than a week later, a deal was struck with the Boonton Education Association, the union that represents the district’s teachers, secretaries and maintenance workers, that involved a nine-month wage freeze, among other concessions. Speaking outside John Hill Elementary School, Christie praised the union for having the courage to essentially renegotiate its contract and urged other districts to do the same. (Video by Nyier Abdou/The Star-Ledger)